Nina Kennedy confirms she will compete at Perth Track Classic in February, ending 18-month hiatus

Olympic gold medallist Nina Kennedy will unleash her pole vault for the first time this year at a competitive level at next month’s Perth Track Classic.

Kennedy was expected to make her return after 18 months on the sidelines at the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne in late March.

But she will now compete in both events in the lead-up to the national titles and a defence of her Commonwealth Games gold medal in Glasgow later this year.

Paris Olympic champion Kennedy’s start in Perth will mark her first competition in 518 days.

She had surgery to fix a hamstring injury early last year and recovered, but damaged the same muscle in a different area in the lead up to the world championships and was unable to defend the title she shared with American Katie Moon in 2023.

A top-10 pole vaulter in history as the Australian record holder at 4.91m, Kennedy will be joined by dual Olympic pole vaulter Kurtis Marschall at the February 14 Perth Track Classic.

A bronze medallist at last year’s world championships after courageously making the Olympic final in Paris off a short recovery from injury, Marschall will bring a 5.95m personal best to Perth as he sets his sights on clearing the 6m mark.

Marschall will be aiming for a hat-trick of Commonwealth Games gold medals in Glasgow.

“The Perth Track Classic is perfect timing this year for a season opener before heading over to Europe. I’m glad I can actually do a competition in Australia this year,” Marschall said.

“You never know what’s going to happen in pole vault. You can go out in any competition and jump massive if you get all your cues right and line it up on the day.

“I’m going into every competition thinking that today could be the day that I jump six metres, so I’m very excited.”

The pair have added their names to a growing list of stars set to feature in Perth including another local, Olympic 800m runner Peter Bol, Australian 100m champion Rohan Browning and Oceania record holder Zoe Hobbs.

Kennedy will face elite competition from world Under 20 Championships bronze medallist, South Australian, Tryphena Hewett, along with WA vaulters Olivia Gross and Daisy Brayshaw and Japan’s Misaki Morota.

Kennedy last jumped at a high-level competition at a Diamond League meet in Rome in September, 2024, just a month after she became the first Australian woman to win an Olympic gold medal in a field event.

Kennedy, 28, who set her personal best in 2023 in Zurich, told STM magazine last year she wanted to compete at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 and Brisbane was a “maybe, maybe not.”

“Katie (Moon) is 34 right now, and she’s still winning. So look, who knows? Seven years is such a long time away. My sights are set on LA and we’ll see what happens after that.”

The 2026 Maurie Plant Meet will be held on March 28 as the first of 12 World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meets for 2026, sitting just under the Diamond League in status. The Perth Track Classic is a bronze level event.

*The Perth Track Classic will be televised on 7plus. The Glasgow Commonwealth Games will be televised on Channel 7 from July 23 to August 2.